MATATAG Curriculum: Refining the Education System

In the past years, the Philippine education has tried to cope with the ever-changing educational landscape in the global scale.

If we look at the data, in 2018, the country was positioned last in the rankings given by the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) in terms of reading comprehension, math, and science. In 2022, the World Bank revealed that around 91 percent of Filipino 10-year-olds struggled with basic reading comprehension.

Similar assessments like the Southeast Asia Primary Learning Metrics 2019 also ranked the Philippines near the bottom compared to neighboring countries like Indonesia, Malaysia, and Vietnam.

This data suggests that the educational system especially the curriculum has to be reviewed, reassessed, and recalibrated.

Using this drive, what does MATATAG curriculum aim to do to elevate the Philippine education system thereby improving the results of student assessment and improving the rank of the country in the ASEAN?

MATATAG is an update to the Philippine education system that aims to improve things. It begins with kindergarten through 10th grade, really focusing on reading, math, and life skills.

It is focused on the reading comprehension among learners, knowledge on math concepts and solving mathematical problems, and preparation to their career path specializing on their skill sets and other potentials for work opportunities.

Subject counts per class will decrease to reduce academic pressure. This allows the learners to focus on the core of their learning, which are reading and math as aligned to the international assessment.

DepEd says trimming subjects and competencies, especially in elementary grades, will also lighten teachers’ workloads. The effectiveness of teachers also rely on the burden they have in the teaching learning process.

Quality is emphasized over quantity.

These essential competencies and standards, if realistically taught to students, should bear the necessary amount of hours. This means students should have the mastery of each competency and standard.

If they are able to master one competency or standard at a time, they would be able to connect their learning in a more coherent manner.

In the same way, school leaders must change their perspective and thoroughly embrace the four pillars of MATATAG: Make Relevant, Accelerate Services, Take Care of Learners, and Give Support to Teachers.

These four principles should be conveyed to every staff member by the leaders.

As a school leader, the impact that you create in the school is very much felt with the energy that you put on to advance the programs and projects of DepEd and in the implementation of MATATAG curriculum.

You set the tone within the boundaries of your responsibility and if the faculty and staff see you as an advocate for the proper implementation and conscientious monitoring of the curriculum, then it will also translate to their efforts to make the most of their time implementing and using the curriculum as their tool and drive to make students learn in the most fitting way possible.

Since MATATAG curriculum is an ongoing process, as this year is the launching year of implementation, there could be potential areas along the implementation that may pave a way for continuous development.

Our education leaders may see some areas of concern or may target the goals and objectives of the new curriculum, the answer heavily depends on the feedback of teachers as the frontrunners of the implementation and the results it will generate after a new international assessment is conducted.

As for now, we remain optimistic to this new adoption of curriculum and school leaders and teachers see the motivation of trying the effectiveness and reliability of this MATAG curriculum.

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